Indonesia lacks specialist contractor

JAKARTA. Indonesia still lacks specialist contractors, who are focusing in a specific expertise. Therefore, the government will encourage the contractor companies to apply business specialization to face the competition and increase the project’s qualities.

Minister of Public Works and People’s Housing Basuki Hadimuljono said that the number of specialist contractors remain low. “The number of companies, which apply (business) specialization, remains low,” Basuki said, when opened the National Leadership Meeting (Rapimnas) of the Indonesian Construction Contractors Association, Monday (27/2).

The specialties may include some fields of work, such as the undersea welding, irrigation expert, flood management consultancy, as well as road contractor. According to Basuki, the business specialization is potentially to improve the project’s qualities.

To date, there are 180,000 construction companies in Indonesia. However, the specialist contractors only consist of 1% of that number, while the rests are the general contractors.

In responding to Basuki’s suggestion, Gapensi requested state owned enterprises (SOEs) to be the pioneers in implementing the business specialization.

The Chairman of Organization Comparment of Gapensi Didi Aulia said that most of the members of Gapensi consist of the general contractors. To date, Gapensi’s membership consists of 63,000 companies. However, only 12% of that number that have applied the specialization.

Didi admitted that the business specialization will bring positive impact for the companies. However, Gapensi still doubts that the specialization is applicable in Indonesia. Didi suggests the SOEs to start implementing the business specialization.

The Vice Chairman of North Sulawesi branch of Gapensi Victor Marsabessy said, the specialization of the business activities requires a more complex supporting facilities and infrastructure. In this case, the minor contractors would likely to struggle to implement the specialization.

“It would be more appropriate if the specialization is implemented by the major (contractor) companies, as it (the specialization) requires high technologies. Therefore, the minor contractor companies will be struggling to implement (the specialization),” Victor said. (Muhammad Farid/Translator)